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If you have a Web presence and a universally applicable product, chances are you’re already running an international business. But have you given any thought to maximizing this opportunity with deliberate and targeted marketing efforts?
Don’t leave potentially easy money on the table. One of the quickest ways to “globalize” your efforts is through effective online marketing. It’s cost-effective and yields immediate results—with a response curve that is much shorter than direct mail or other print-based channels. Here are three steps to start you on your way.
1. Engage in local search engine marketing. While search engine marketing is growing increasingly global, developing a local focus is a very effective means for growing your business. This requires you to actively promote your Web site with local, country-specific search engines.
If I’m a British citizen searching the Web for a product or service, it’s quite likely I would use a local search engine. If you’re not buying keywords on the international equivalents of Google, Yahoo! or other sites, your Web site won’t appear in local search results, which means potential customers residing outside the U.S. will never see your Web site as an option.
In most cases, the same keywords you’ve found to perform in the U.S. also will work with other country-specific search engines. In fact, some of the more attractive words you may shy away from bidding on in the U.S. because of cost may be available at a lesser cost outside of the U.S.
2. Introduce editorial content. Consider co-branding editorial with partners who are willing to share. Many direct marketing companies—regardless of the product they sell—have begun seeking out editorial commentary to share with their customers. They’ve wisely figured out that the more contact they have with their customers, the stronger the relationship. And stronger relationships reap greater ancillary buying habits on the part of customers.
These same marketers also have determined that since producing quality editorial isn’t their core business, it behooves them to partner with companies whose core competencies are quality editorial.
If you’re a Web-based business that collects e-mail addresses from your customers, but doesn’t have an editorial component to your business, look for someone who has content that would be of interest to your customers. For example, a direct marketer of healthy living products may search out a health publisher willing to co-brand its editorial in exchange for use of the marketer’s list. This would expand the potential customer universe for both marketers.
In this type of relationship, the only cost to you likely will be a share of the advertising revenue in exchange for the shared editorial. You’ll create a win-win situation: content for you, new customers for your partner and shared revenue for both of you.
3. Advertise on country-specific Web sites. You may have a very advanced online marketing program in the U.S.—one where you’ve already invested the time and money to understand your target audience and the types of Web sites they visit regularly.
Why not use that knowledge and apply it to similar sites hosted by companies in the region or country you wish to target? For example, if you have had success selling gardening products via banner ads on self-help sites, then test similar self-help sites hosted outside the U.S. You’ll typically find that advertisements on local sites with similar content perform as well or better than the sites you’ve found to work in the U.S.
Expanding your business outside of your current market applies much of what you already know to a new area of the world. With a bit of strategic planning, it can amount to a significant increase in sales and opportunity without significant risk.
Stacy Berver is president of DM360° Inc., a marketing consulting company specializing in global direct marketing expansion. She can be reached at (410) 336-4394 or via e-mail at stacy@dm360inc.com.
Don’t leave potentially easy money on the table. One of the quickest ways to “globalize” your efforts is through effective online marketing. It’s cost-effective and yields immediate results—with a response curve that is much shorter than direct mail or other print-based channels. Here are three steps to start you on your way.
1. Engage in local search engine marketing. While search engine marketing is growing increasingly global, developing a local focus is a very effective means for growing your business. This requires you to actively promote your Web site with local, country-specific search engines.
If I’m a British citizen searching the Web for a product or service, it’s quite likely I would use a local search engine. If you’re not buying keywords on the international equivalents of Google, Yahoo! or other sites, your Web site won’t appear in local search results, which means potential customers residing outside the U.S. will never see your Web site as an option.
In most cases, the same keywords you’ve found to perform in the U.S. also will work with other country-specific search engines. In fact, some of the more attractive words you may shy away from bidding on in the U.S. because of cost may be available at a lesser cost outside of the U.S.
2. Introduce editorial content. Consider co-branding editorial with partners who are willing to share. Many direct marketing companies—regardless of the product they sell—have begun seeking out editorial commentary to share with their customers. They’ve wisely figured out that the more contact they have with their customers, the stronger the relationship. And stronger relationships reap greater ancillary buying habits on the part of customers.
These same marketers also have determined that since producing quality editorial isn’t their core business, it behooves them to partner with companies whose core competencies are quality editorial.
If you’re a Web-based business that collects e-mail addresses from your customers, but doesn’t have an editorial component to your business, look for someone who has content that would be of interest to your customers. For example, a direct marketer of healthy living products may search out a health publisher willing to co-brand its editorial in exchange for use of the marketer’s list. This would expand the potential customer universe for both marketers.
In this type of relationship, the only cost to you likely will be a share of the advertising revenue in exchange for the shared editorial. You’ll create a win-win situation: content for you, new customers for your partner and shared revenue for both of you.
3. Advertise on country-specific Web sites. You may have a very advanced online marketing program in the U.S.—one where you’ve already invested the time and money to understand your target audience and the types of Web sites they visit regularly.
Why not use that knowledge and apply it to similar sites hosted by companies in the region or country you wish to target? For example, if you have had success selling gardening products via banner ads on self-help sites, then test similar self-help sites hosted outside the U.S. You’ll typically find that advertisements on local sites with similar content perform as well or better than the sites you’ve found to work in the U.S.
Expanding your business outside of your current market applies much of what you already know to a new area of the world. With a bit of strategic planning, it can amount to a significant increase in sales and opportunity without significant risk.
Stacy Berver is president of DM360° Inc., a marketing consulting company specializing in global direct marketing expansion. She can be reached at (410) 336-4394 or via e-mail at stacy@dm360inc.com.
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